The State Department admitted Thursday that the US would not hand over $400 million in cash to Iran until it released four American hostages — two weeks after President Obama insisted the payment was not a “ransom.”

State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked at Thursday’s press briefing: “In basic English, you’re saying you wouldn’t give them $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?”

“That’s correct,” Kirby replied.

In an August 4 press conference, President Obama said the opposite.

“We do not pay ransom. We didn’t here, and we won’t in the future,” the president told reporters, speaking of the Jan. 17 payment and hostage release.

Families “know we have a policy that we don’t pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now, in this high-profile way, and announce it to the world, even as we’re looking in the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are being held hostage, and saying to them we don’t pay ransom, defies logic,” Obama added at the time.

He lectured the press for even raising the issue.

“It’s been interesting to watch this story surface. Some of you may recall, we announced these payments in January. Many months ago. There wasn’t a secret. We announced them to all of you. [Press Secretary Josh Earnest] did a briefing on them. This wasn’t some nefarious deal,” the president said. “It wasn’t a secret. We were completely open with everybody about it and it is interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again,” Obama said.

The US claims the money — delivered in cash stacked aboard an unmarked cargo plane — was part of a settlement of a long standing dispute with the Iranian regime over a never-completed arms deal from the 1970s.

Kirby continued to maintain Thursday that “the two negotiations were separate,” referring to the hostage release and and arms deal.

Kirby spoke after The Wall Street Journal reported that the departures of the crisscrossing planes — the one with the $400 million and the one with the 4 Americans — were linked.

Getty Images
President Obama is hitting the links with comedian Larry David on Thursday.
Obama, on vacation at Martha's Vineyard, Mass., took the "Seinfeld" co-creator out for a game of golf, along with frequent presidential golf partners and businessmen Robert Wolf and Jonathan Lavine, according to pool reports.
David parlayed his striking impression of Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) into regular appearances on "Saturday Night Live" this past year.

David played golf with Obama last summer at Martha's Vineyard as well, where pool reportsnoted the comedian's struggle to get out of a sand trap.

Obama played his 300th round of golf as president while on his annual summer vacation.

Meanwhile in Louisiana...

I seem to recall a guy getting a hard time for not showing enough interest in the area when things got wet.

Getty Images
President Obama is hitting the links with comedian Larry David on Thursday.
Obama, on vacation at Martha's Vineyard, Mass., took the "Seinfeld" co-creator out for a game of golf, along with frequent presidential golf partners and businessmen Robert Wolf and Jonathan Lavine, according to pool reports.
David parlayed his striking impression of Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) into regular appearances on "Saturday Night Live" this past year.

David played golf with Obama last summer at Martha's Vineyard as well, where pool reportsnoted the comedian's struggle to get out of a sand trap.

Obama played his 300th round of golf as president while on his annual summer vacation.

Meanwhile in Louisiana...

I seem to recall a guy getting a hard time for not showing enough interest in the area when things got wet.